Stored program architecture

Main articles: Computer program and Computer programming

The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that a list of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer and it will store them and carry them out at some time in the future.

In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number to another, move some data from one location to another, send a message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read from the computer's memory and are generally carried out (executed) in the order they were given. However, there are usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that "remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following that jump instruction.

Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.

Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000 would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time—with a near certainty of making a mistake. On the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions. For example:

        mov      #0,sum     ; set sum to 0
       mov      #1,num     ; set num to 1
loop:   add      num,sum    ; add num to sum
       add      #1,num     ; add 1 to num
       cmp      num,#1000  ; compare num to 1000
       ble      loop       ; if num <= 1000, go back to 'loop'
       halt                ; end of program. stop running

Once told to run this program, the computer will perform the repetitive addition task without further human intervention. It will almost never make a mistake and a modern PC can complete the task in about a millionth of a second.^[13]

However, computers cannot "think" for themselves in the sense that they only solve problems in exactly the way they are programmed to. An intelligent human faced with the above addition task might soon realize that instead of actually adding up all the numbers one can simply use the equation

and arrive at the correct answer (500,500) with little work.^[14] In other words, a computer programmed to add up the numbers one by one as in the example above would do exactly that without regard to efficiency or alternative solutions.

History of computing

Main article: History of computer hardware

The Jacquard loom was one of the first programmable devices.

The first use of the word "computer" was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued to be used in that sense until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century onwards though, the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, describing a machine that carries out computations.^[3]

The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies—automated calculation and programmability—but no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. Examples of early mechanical calculating devices include the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150–100 BC). Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when.^[4] This is the essence of programmability.

The "castle clock", an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer.^[5] It displayed the zodiac, the solar and lunar orbits, a crescent moon-shaped pointer travelling across a gateway causing automatic doors to open every hour,^[6][7] and five robotic musicians who played music when struck by levers operated by a camshaft attached to a water wheel. The length of day and night could be re-programmed to compensate for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year.^[5]

The end of the Middle Ages saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering. Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers, but none fit the modern definition of a computer, because they could not be programmed.

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer, his analytical engine.^[8] Limited finances and Babbage's inability to resist tinkering with the design meant that the device was never completed.

In the late 1880s Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a machine readable medium. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for control, not data. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards ..."^[9] To process these punched cards he invented the tabulator, and the key punch machines. These three inventions were the foundation of the modern information processing industry. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the 1890 United States Census by Hollerith's company, which later became the core of IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear: the punched card, Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve) and the teleprinter.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers.

George Stibitz is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. While working at Bell Labs in November of 1937, Stibitz invented and built a relay-based calculator he dubbed the "Model K" (for "kitchen table", on which he had assembled it), which was the first to use binary circuits to perform an arithmetic operation. Later models added greater sophistication including complex arithmetic and programmability.^[10]

Defining characteristics of some early digital computers of the 1940s (In the history of computing hardware)

Name	First operational	Numeral system	Computing mechanism	Programming	Turing complete
Zuse Z3 (Germany)	May 1941	Binary	Electro-mechanical	Program-controlled by punched film stock (but no conditional branch)	Yes (1998)
Atanasoff–Berry Computer (US)	1942	Binary	Electronic	Not programmable—single purpose	No
Colossus Mark 1 (UK)	February 1944	Binary	Electronic	Program-controlled by patch cables and switches	No
Harvard Mark I – IBM ASCC (US)	May 1944	Decimal	Electro-mechanical	Program-controlled by 24-channel punched paper tape (but no conditional branch)	No
Colossus Mark 2 (UK)	June 1944	Binary	Electronic	Program-controlled by patch cables and switches	No
ENIAC (US)	July 1946	Decimal	Electronic	Program-controlled by patch cables and switches	Yes
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (UK)	June 1948	Binary	Electronic	Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory	Yes
Modified ENIAC (US)	September 1948	Decimal	Electronic	Program-controlled by patch cables and switches plus a primitive read-only stored programming mechanism using the Function Tables as program ROM	Yes
EDSAC (UK)	May 1949	Binary	Electronic	Stored-program in mercury delay line memory	Yes
Manchester Mark 1 (UK)	October 1949	Binary	Electronic	Stored-program in Williams cathode ray tube memory and magnetic drum memory	Yes
CSIRAC (Australia)	November 1949	Binary	Electronic	Stored-program in mercury delay line memory	Yes

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally important steps, but defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is difficult (Shannon 1940). Notable achievements include:

EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored program (von Neumann) architecture.

• Konrad Zuse's electromechanical "Z machines". The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the world's first operational computer.
• The non-programmable Atanasoff–Berry Computer (1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory. The use of regenerative memory allowed it to be much more compact then its peers (being approximately the size of a large desk or workbench), since intermediate results could be stored and then fed back into the same set of computation elements.
• The secret British Colossus computers (1943),^[11] which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of tubes could be reasonably reliable and electronically reprogrammable. It was used for breaking German wartime codes.
• The Harvard Mark I (1944), a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability.
• The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which used decimal arithmetic and is sometimes called the first general purpose electronic computer (since Konrad Zuse's Z3 of 1941 used electromagnets instead of electronics). Initially, however, ENIAC had an inflexible architecture which essentially required rewiring to change its programming.

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which came to be known as the "stored program architecture" or von Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored-program architecture commenced around this time, the first of these being completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or "Baby"), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the first practical implementation of the stored program design. Shortly thereafter, the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but did not see full-time use for an additional two years.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored-program architecture, making it the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture.

Microprocessors are miniaturized devices that often implement stored program CPUs.

Computers using vacuum tubes as their electronic elements were in use throughout the 1950s, but by the 1960s had been largely replaced by transistor-based machines, which were smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, required less power, and were more reliable. The first transistorised computer was demonstrated at the University of Manchester in 1953.^[12] In the 1970s, integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004, further decreased size and cost and further increased speed and reliability of computers. By the 1980s, computers became sufficiently small and cheap to replace simple mechanical controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. The 1980s also witnessed home computers and the now ubiquitous personal computer. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the household.

Modern smartphones are fully-programmable computers in their own right, and as of 2009 may well be the most common form of such computers in existence.

Computer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the machine. For other uses, see Computer (disambiguation).

"Computer technology" redirects here. For the company, see Computer Technology Limited.

The NASA Columbia Supercomputer.

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.

Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first resembling a modern computer were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). The first electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PC).^[1] Modern computers based on tiny integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.^[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into a wristwatch, and can be powered by a watch battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age, what most people think of as a "computer", but the embedded computers found in devices ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and toys are the most numerous.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.

lagu maya estianti- TTM di beli grub musik Ladylike asal Swedia

Belum hilang di ingatan tentang pembajakan lagu Bongkar yang dilantunkan Iwan Fals oleh musisi India. Kini kabar menggembirakan datang dari Swedia.

Salah satu group vokal dari Swedia bernama Ladylike merilis lagu yang aransemennya persis dengan lagu Ratu yang berjudul Teman Tapi Mesra.

Lagu berjudul “Teman Tapi Mesra/TTM” yang dipopulerkan oleh grup Ratu besutan Maia Estianty, diduga telah dijiplak oleh sebuah grup vokal Ladylike asal Swedia dalam single terbaru mereka berjudul “Dreaming of The Time”.

Informasi yang dihimpun ANTARA di Pekanbaru, Sabtu, kabar mengenai pelanggaran hak cipta ini sudah mulai beredar di dunia maya, salah satunya di forum komunitas kaskus.
Dalam sebuah posting pada Jumat (15/5) lalu, disebutkan bahwa single “Dreaming of The Time” dirilis grup vokal tersebut sekitar empat minggu lalu.

Kabarnya, lagu itu membuat keempat cewek seksi personal Ladylike (Louise Tomassino, Miranda Hortlund, Isabella Filling, dan Valerie Wigardt) cukup terkenal. Sebabnya, tembang tersebut terus menjadi langganan untuk diputar di berbagai radio di Amerika dan negara-negara lainnya.

Lagu yang diduga jiplakan tembang “TTM” itu bisa diunduh di http://www.warungmp3.com/ladylike-dreaming-of-the-time/

Meski hingga kini belum ada konfirmasi dari pihak manajemen Ratu mengenai dugaan penjiplakan ini, kemiripan dua lagu tersebut sulit untuk terbantahkan.

Aransemen lagu dari Ladylike sangat identik dengan “TTM” sejak awal hingga lagu berakhir. Perbedaan yang mencolok hanya pada penggunaan bahasa Inggris di lagu tersebut, dan vokal yang dinyanyikan empat personel Ladylike sungguh jauh dari karakter “TTM” yang dibawakan Ratu pada masa Maia dan Mulan.(*ANTARA News)

bendera gerindra paling laku

Browse > Home / Bangun Banten / Bendera Partai GERINDRA Paling Laku

Bendera Partai GERINDRA Paling Laku

February 21, 2009 | Dibaca 779 kali

Di antara 38 partai politik yang akan memperebutkan suara pemilih secara nasional pada pemilu legislatif 9 April 2009 nanti, Partai GERINDRA merupakan partai yang benderanya paling laku. Setidaknya, hal ini terjadi di Kabupaten Tangerang di mana saya tinggal dan di seputaran Kabupaten Serang, Kota Serang dan Kota Cilegon di daerah pemilihan saya. Yang saya maksud laku di sini bukannya bendera Partai GERINDRA paling banyak dibeli melainkan paling sering hilang dari tempatnya. Di beberapa tempat, paling lama bendera Partai GERINDRA bertahan dua minggu di tempat bendera itu dipasang. Setelahnya tidak ada lagi.

Ketika teman-teman dari Panongan dan Curug berbincang-bincang dengan saya tadi malam, di daerah Binong, Kecamatan Curug, Kabupaten Tangerang, bahkan bendera Partai GERINDRA sudah tidak berada di tempatnya hanya dalam waktu dua jam. Ceritanya, anggota Partai GERINDRA sedang memasang bendera GERINDRA. Pada saat selesai, anggota Partai GERINDRA tersebut melewati tempat di mana bendera Partai GERINDRA di pasang pertama kali dan menemukan di tempat tersebut bendera sudah diturunkan oleh orang.

Saya hanya dapat mengatakan kepada teman-teman saya tersebut sebuah harapan agar bendera tersebut diambil oleh mereka yang menyukai Partai GERINDRA dan ingin memiliki bendera tersebut. Saya tidak mengatakan bahwa orang-orang dari partai politik lain yang merasa terancam dan tidak suka dengan Partai GERINDRA yang menurunkan bendera tersebut walaupun kemungkinan tersebut ada.

Saya punya pengalaman di mana bendera-bendera yang saya pasang di tempat yang tidak terlalu tinggi di sekitar rumah saya hanya bertahan satu minggu. Ternyata, menurut petugas keamanan yang berjaga di klaster saya, bendera tersebut diambil oleh anak-anak SD yang baru pulang sekolah dan dikibar-kibarkan sambil berlari.

Di Kecamatan Ciruas, Kabupaten Serang, lain lagi. Bendera Partai GERINDRA diambil oleh petani dan dibuat menjadi tas untuk dibawa ke sawah. Kami justru tersenyum ketika diceritai bahwa petani tersebut mendatangi rumah Ketua PAC Ciruas dan mengaku bahwa yang bersangkutan yang mengambil bendera Partai GERINDRA untuk dibuat tas dan dipakai ke sawah.

Akan tetapi, ada juga pengalaman bendera-bendera yang dipasang oleh anggota Partai GERINDRA di sekitar Taman Telaga Citra Raya telah hilang dan di tempat di mana tadinya bendera Partai GERINDRA dipasang telah diganti dengan bendera partai lain. Bendera partai politik yang mengadakan acara di Sports Club Citra Raya pada saat tersebut.

Saya selalu mengatakan kepada teman-teman agar pada saat memasang bendera jangan mengganggu bendera partai politik lain dan teman-teman dari Partai GERINDRA pun menyadari bahwa 38 partai politik yang telah lolos verifikasi faktual dan ikut pemilu 2009 memiliki hak yang sama untuk memasang bendera di tempat-tempat yang tidak terlarang. Contohnya, kami menganggap bahwa jalan raya dari gerbang Citra Raya sampai ke bundaran tiga termasuk jalan protokol sehingga Partai GERINDRA tidak memasang bendera di sepanjang ruas jalan tersebut walaupun partai politik dan caleg dari partai politik lain berebut tempat untuk memasang bendera, poster dan baligo. Apabila ditemukan bendera Partai GERINDRA di sekitar danau di bundaran air mancur Citra Raya, bendera yang bertuliskan nama caleg DPRD Kabupaten Tangerang, yang memasang bukan anggota Partai GERINDRA melainkan tim sukses seorang calon anggota DPD yang bekerjasama dengan caleg tersebut.

Ada cerita dari Kramatwatu bahwa bendera Partai GERINDRA yang dipasang di Jalan Raya Cilegon pasti akan hilang. Saya merasa prihatin mendengar informasi tersebut. Akan tetapi, apabila jalan tersebut merupakan tempat terlarang untuk memasang bendera, biarlah kami tidak usah memasang bendera di jalan tersebut.

Partai GERINDRA menghormati dan menghargai partai politik lain dengan tidak pernah mengganggu bendera atau atribut partai politik lain. Namun, hilangnya bendera-bendera Partai GERINDRA dari tempatnya, selain pelakunya orang yang suka dengan Partai GERINDRA atau anak-anak, juga ada indikasi dilakukan oleh anggota dari partai politik lain. Saya sangat mengharap agar para pengurus partai politik mengedepankan asas saling menghormati dan menghargai serta mengedepankan etika dalam berpolitik. Contohnya, marilah kita jangan saling menurunkan bendera atau atribut partai lain.

dengerin tuh kata Om Obama

BlackBerry vs Barack Obama

Ngototnya Presiden AS Barack H Obama mempertahankan BlackBerry bisa menimbulkan masalah. Hacker ternama Kevin Mitnick mengatakan BlackBerry Obama akan disadap meskipun sudah didesain khusus dengan super enskripsi.

Orang yang paling tepat ditanya mengenai BlackBerry Obama, bisa ditembus atau tidak adalah Kevin Mitnick. Dialah orang yang hingga kini dianggap sebagai hacker paling termasyur.

“BlackBerry Presiden Obama bisa ditembus,” tegasnya, kemarin.

Meskipun sudah diperingatkan penasehatnya, Obama ngotot mempertahankan PDA-nya itu. Dalam beberapa kesempatan Obama terlihat menenteng gadgetnya itu. Banyak laporan yang menyebutkan, alat komunikasi Obama itu sudah dilengkapi software super enskripsi yang didesain secara khusus.

“Enskripsi itu justru membuat usaha penjebolan lebih menantang dan pasti bisa ditembus,” kata Mitnick. Mitnick pernah diganjar lima tahun penjara, setelah mengaku salah melakukan hacking. Perusahaan yang dihacking tak main-main adalah penyedia layanan telekomunikasi dan komputer terbesar di AS pada masa 1990-an.

Masa kelam itu telah lewat, dan Mitnick kini mengelola perusahaan keamanan cyber bernama Security Consulting. “Jika aku penyerang, aku akan mulai dari lingkaran teman dekat Obama, keluarga serta koleganya dan coba memanfaatkan komputer mereka,” kata Mitnick.

“Yang perlu diserang adalah email Obama yang ada di BlackBerrynya,” katanya. Menurut Mitnick orang yang dikenal Obama akan menjadi korban yang mudah diserang. Terutama perangkat komputer atau gadget yang ada di rumah, lebih mudah ditembus daripada yang digunakan di markas.

Jika alamat email Obama sudah diketahui, hacker secara teori dapat mengirim email dan dengan segala tipu daya agar Obama terjebak. Cara yang bisa dilakukan misalnya dengan memancing agar Obama mengunjungi situs tertentu yang sudah direkayasa dan terdapat kode penyerang.

Sekretaris media Gedung Putih Robert Gibbs pada wartawan bulan lalu mengatakan hanya kelompok kecil kolega dan pembantu senior yang bisa bertukar informasi dengan Presiden Obama.

Chris Soghoian dari Berkman Center for Internet and Society Universitas Harvard mengatakan, informasi yang dikirim melalui komputer lingkaran dalam Obama akan membuat presiden keturunan kulit hitam itu tidak curiga.

“Serangan langsung terjadi saat mengunjungi situs penjahat dan hanya dalam hitungan detik komputer memaksa akan mendownload virus,” papar Soghoian. Soghoian mengatakan penjahat yang mengejar BlackBerry Obama bukan mencari keuntungan ekonomi. Tapi lebih pada pemerintah asing yang ingin menyadap informasi rahasia.

“Orang yang hanya ingin popular dengan menerobos BlackBerry Obama kemampuannya tidak akan cukup. Ancaman paling nyata adalah dari beberapa orang dari warnet di Rusia atau sebuah tim 60 orang yang bekerja untuk pemerintah China. Ancaman itu datang dari tim yang disponsori oleh suatu pemerintahan,” kata Soghoian.

Hacker menerobos BlacBerry Obama adalaah ancaman yang mungkin saja terjadi, kata Bill Brenner, senior editor CSO Magazine yang membahas masalah keamanan.

“Tidak ada keraguan ada hacker di luar sana yang akan menerobos ke BlackBerry Obama. Dalam beberapa kesempatan sudah tak terhitung orang mencoba melakukan hacking ke BlackBerry milik politisi, ponsel artis Paris Hilton serta jaringan komputer Departemen Pertahanan,” jelasnya.

Sejauh ini pejabat di pemerintahan Obama menutup mulut mengenai detail BlackBerry yang digunakan. Juga masih belum pasti apakah Obama menggunakan BlackBerry atau Sectera Edge, smartphone super aman yang disediakan oleh Lembaga Keamanan Nasional AS atau NSA.

“Tidak ada yang tahu perangkat apa yang benar-benar digunakan oleh presiden. Memang ada beberapa informasi, tapi makin sedikit informasi maka semakin baik,” kata Randy Sabett dari Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP mantan pegawai di NSA.

Research In Motion, perusahaan Kanada yang memproduksi handset serta jaringan yang mengantarkan e-mail BlackBerry melalui servernya sendiri tidak pernah menanggapi pertanyaan seputar BlackBerry yang digunakan Obama.

Pejabat di pemerintahan Obama tampaknya mempertimbangkan potensi risiko yang mungkin terjadi. Mitnick setuju komandan keamanan mungkin menjaga sistem komunikasi yang digunakan tetap rahasia, tapi belum cukup.

“Pertanyaannya sejauh mana intelejen bisa ikut campur? mungkin ada aturan hanya yang bukan rahasia saja yang boleh dibicarakan. Jika mendiskusikan masalah rahasia, aku jamin mereka perlu enskripsi menggunakan metode algoritma tingkat lanjut,” jelas Mitnick.

Tapi Mitnick mewanti-wanti para hacker untuk mempertimbangkan konsekuensi yang bisa didapat jika melakukan itu. “Pemerintah akan mengejar dengan kekuatan yang dipunyai,” imbuhnya.

Tapi hukuman tidak akan mencegah 100% orang berbuat kejahatan. “Tidak ada yang 100% di bidang keamanan dan orang yang mengatakan sebaliknya pasti berbohong. Dan jika jadi seorang presiden, akan selalu ada ancaman dari seseorang yang coba menerobos,” tandasnya.

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Komputer Tercepat Pertama di Dunia

Tesla Super Komputer dengan NVIDIA sebagai graphics processing units (GPU) diharapkan akan membantu peneliti dan mempercepat penemuan atas pengobatan kanker (image :dmck)Super komputer personal pertama di dunia, yang mempunyai kecepatan 250 kali diatas rata-rata PC biasa, diperlihatkan kepada publik di London, Inggris. Namun harganya masih berada diluar jangkauan kebanyakan konsumen, karena harganya masih berada pada angka £4,000 atau sekitar Rp 70.400.000 dengan kurs Rp 17.600 per pound-nya. Tetapi kinerja processor berkecepatan tinggi tersebut sangat berharga buat sebuah universitas atau institusi medis. Super komputer tersebut di rancang dengan menggunakan sebuah graphics processing units (GPU) dari NVIDIA, sehingga membuatnya sanggup melakukan kalkulasi secara simultan yang umumnya dilakukan oleh sebuah super komputer yang mempunyai “cluster” dan membutuhkan satu buah ruangan besar. Tahun 1954 : IBM 704 dianggap sebagai super komputer pertama di dunia, namun komputer ini membutuhkan sebuah ruangan besar untuk melakukan perhitungan ilmiah/scientific calculations. (image :dmcu) “Teknologi itu merupakan sebuah lompatan besar dalam sejarah komputer,” ujar juru bicara NVIDIA, Benjamin Berraondo. “Perubahannya setara dengan penemuan microchip.” Mahasiswa PhD di Universitas Cambridge dan Oxford juga Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) di Amerika telah menggunakan super komputer yang berbasis pada GPU untuk melakukan penelitian. Para ilmuwan percaya, sistem baru ini akan membantu mereka menemukan pengobatan berbagai penyakit. Karena sistem ini memungkinkan mereka dapat menjalankan ribuan code untuk menciptakan sebuah daftar obat-obatan yang mempunyai potensi penyembuhan. ”Hal ini mempercepat penemuan berbagai obat-obatan yang berpotensi untuk menyelamatkan hidup penderita kanker,” ujar Jack Collins dari sebuah pusat penelitian Advanced Biomedical Computing Centre di Maryland. Komputer itu menggunakan graphics processing units secara inovafif dan revolusioner, dimana menurut klaim NVIDIA , dapat memberikan perubahan drastis menuju generasi baru komputer rumah (home computers) “Sebuah processor tradisional melakukan satu “pekerjaan” dalam satu waktu, dengan menggunakan metode linear, tetapi GPU bekerja secara simultan untuk melakukan beberapa hal sekaligus, seperti mendapatkan warna pixel, sekaligus menghadirkan gambar bergerak didalam layar,” ujar Berranodo. “Jadi pada saat mendownload sebuah film kedalam iPod akan membutuhkan sekitar enam jam dengan sistem (komputer) tradisional, sebuah graphics card dapat memangkas waktunya menjadi 20 menit.” Super komputer itu dibuat oleh sejumlah perusahaan yang berkedudukan di Inggris, termasuk Viglen, Armari dan Dell, saat ini dijual kepada sejumlah Universitas atau komunitas sains dan peneliti. Menurut sebuah perusahaan pembuat komputer, Dell. Komputer itu akan diproduksi secara massal dan dipasarkan kepada konsumen umum. (dmcu) http://artikelmu.co.cc